City councillors are considering another motion to regulate future data centre projects nearly two months after rejecting a proposed moratorium, according to an anti-data centre grassroots group.

Over the long weekend, Stop the Datacentre(s) posted the text of a draft motion that would prohibit Hamilton Community Enterprises (HCE) — the city-owned utility company — from developing, constructing or “otherwise participating in any AI data centre project” until the city adopts a regulatory framework for these controversial builds. This includes the proposed publicly-owned facility on the Steelport lands along Hamilton’s waterfront that sparked the city-wide debate over data centres earlier this summer.

While Stop the Datacentre(s) has been part of the motion’s drafting process, Nick Tsergas, one of its six core organizers, told The Spectator that the idea originated from a group of unnamed councillors.

Tsergas wouldn’t reveal the identity of the councillors behind this renewed motion to regulate, but noted they are different than the councillors who brought up the “moratorium” bylaw earlier this summer that would’ve paused data centre construction for a year.

The motion isn’t on any upcoming city council or committee meeting agendas, but Tsergas told The Spectator that it’s been in the works for a couple weeks.

“Conversations around this are ongoing among councillors,” Tsergas said.

To enforce what effectively amounts to a freeze on any participation in data centre projects, the city would rely on its role as the owner of the HCE’s parent company, the Hamilton Enterprise Holding Corporation.

“It would use council’s shareholder authority to restrict the city’s involvement in AI data centre projects,” Tsergas explained.

The motion comes nearly two months after council struck down a then-landmark bylaw that would’ve paused any data centre developments for a year while the city drafted regulations. All but one councillor initially backed the measure, but then several reversed course and voted against it in July.

In the weeks since, both Mississauga and Oakville have passed their own versions of a moratorium bylaw.

For Tsergas, this motion offers a redo to councillors who voted against a widely popular proposal as they prepare to face voters in October’s election. He said he’s optimistic it’ll come up for discussion before election day, though the clock is ticking with only two city council meetings scheduled before Oct. 26.

“At least some of them are going to take a very serious look at this,” Tsergas said, though he fell short of predicting the motion will pass as written.

Whether the city has the legal authority to enforce the motion is unclear.

According to Tsergas, the city’s legal team advised the councillors behind the motion that this use of ownership power was allowed.

But back in June, when council first debated the merits of a potential data centre moratorium, Mayor Andrea Horwath pushed back on Coun. Matt Francis’s suggestion that the city could force HCE to stop any data centre project discussions.

The city, the mayor said at the time, “cannot direct HCE to do or not do, or undertake or not undertake any particular activity or project.”

Though the draft motion would apply to any future data centre project, it specifically takes aim at a proposal from the Digital Research Alliance of Canada (DRAC) and Slate Asset Management. The pair have not submitted a formal application to the city, but they have asked the federal government to fund what it hopes to be a facility to store research data along Hamilton Harbour.

Both DRAC and Slate declined to comment.